For more than four decades the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has tracked the achievement of U.S. students in major academic subjects. This national resource is the only assessment that states and now many urban districts can look to as an objective yardstick of their performance over time, relative to national benchmarks, and…

In this article, the author argues that current strategies to study and understand students' identities fall short of fully capturing their complexity. A multi-dimensional perspective and a mixed-methods approach can reveal nuance that is missed with current approaches. The author offers an illustration of how mixed-methods research can promote a…

Explains the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges' research agenda. Underscores the need for better two-year college data. Summarizes the National Conference on Community College Research's conclusions regarding research needs in the areas of students' attributes, progress, and outcomes. (DMM)

A general interest in attrition, or loss of units from a study, stems in part from the observation that the infrequency of attention to attrition exacerbates problems of data interpretation. As a substudy of the national evaluation of Project Follow Through, the potential biasing effects of attrition of subjects from the sites were investigated.…

This planning conference was one in a series of such conferences aimed at providing continuous guidance for the development of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) a study designed to discover what happens to young adults after they leave high school, and to relate this information to earlier educational…

A group of high school self-reported dropouts and a group of simulated high school dropouts were compared with graduates in their participation rates, efforts required for data collection, and the overall quality of their responses in the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. The results indicate that dropouts are less…

In response to a request from the California state legislature, a plan is proposed for obtaining information on the number of community college students eligible to transfer to the University of California and the California State University; the characteristics of those students who do and do not transfer; and the persistence and performance of…

The methodological parameters of evaluative research studies help to identify a conceptualization of the phenomenon under investigation. Holistic critiques that identify the conceptual models under which the research was conducted shed light on the validity of the disparate inferences made from a number of studies of schools and school…

The Transfer Assembly is a research effort of the Los Angeles-based Center for the Study of Community Colleges. The Assembly defines transfer students as "all students entering a two-year college in a given year who have no prior college experience, who complete at least 12 credit units at the college, and who subsequently enroll at a senior…

This report summarizes the progress made between 1980 and 1981 in the implementation of a plan to gather a variety of information about community college transfer students in California. After background on the adoption of the plan is provided, its underlying assumptions and objectives are outlined. Next, progress made in ascertaining the number…

Approximately 6,500 children are enrolled per year in the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program (PreK). In 1975-76 a longitudinal study was begun to determine the program's impact on the development of children while enrolled in the program and in the primary grades. Samples from a population of 5,245 four-year-old prekindergarten…